Garrett could probably shoot like that too, he taught Ward, didn't he? Plus, why would writers show him without the rifle? To leave us to assume after he shot his pistol, he ran back to the rifle, then ran to the side to get a side angled shot before Buddy was out of sight?

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Yeah, there was the pistol scene where he trained him how to shoot, but Garrett also mentioned Ward's shooting talent in the prison-break scene. Anyway, I think the scene was deliberately ambiguous. If Ward had the rifle, it wouldn't have been ambiguous. Likewise, if they had shown Garrett with the gun, it would have been the same.

Again, though, Ward did not choose the situation. Fitz and Simmons chose to lock themselves inside. Ward tried to get them to come out, but he was unable to get to them. Dumping the cargo pod was the only way he had available of even trying to kill them. So it does not remotely prove that he wanted them to live. It proves that the writers want them to live -- that's all.

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While I tend to think that's the better explanation, I also think it was a bit ambiguous. After all, he could have waited them out if he couldn't kill them then.

Clearly there's some very intentional ambiguity in both the Buddy & Fitz-Simmons scenes and how they relate to each other. Did he *really* shoot the dog? Did he *really* intend to kill them? Tune in next week and find out!

And as for Triplett, Garrett still needed to maintain his guise of being a loyal & trusted SHIELD agent, one that Coulson still respected (and had no suspicion). So he trained Triplett as an unsuspecting SHIELD agent, and would have dumped him his first chance. Triplett seems to be a loyal agent who follows orders, so Garrett, pre-Hydra revelation, would just have Trip do his SHIELD thing.

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Keep in mind that Garrett lost a bunch of other people under him that were killed by the Clairvoyant.

Triplett was just one of many "good guys" that Garrett had working under him. Garrett played the role of a good Shield agent, generally working with all the people that he was assigned to work with. Didn't he even mention that he and Hand were part of the same team at one time?

Also,
The pod that Pitz/simmons was in – surely that was also an escape module. Why else would it be so easy to dump out the Bus?

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Oh, I can think of a reason or two why an aircraft might need to reduce its weight by dumping its cargo pods.

And at such a low level, I think Ward knew they would have a chance to live…

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Again, though, Ward did not choose the situation. Fitz and Simmons chose to lock themselves inside. Ward tried to get them to come out, but he was unable to get to them. Dumping the cargo pod was the only way he had available of even trying to kill them. So it does not remotely prove that he wanted them to live. It proves that the writers want them to live -- that's all.

And it's not like there were windows. We could see that the Bus wasn't high above the water yet, but that doesn't mean Ward knew that. For all he knew, he was dropping them from a thousand feet at that point.

And -- one more time -- he doesn't know they have a homing beacon. It looked to me, too, like the cargo pod sank like a stone. As far as he knows, there's no way anyone could possibly find them in time to rescue them. So yes, as far as he knows, he was killing them, period. He has no reason to believe otherwise.

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Ward didn't know about the beacon, but he also didn't know that Coulson's team didn't know that Fitz/simmons didn't contact Coulson about spying>

And for others -- I just rewatched the scene where Ward uses a scope gun to shoot at a deer. Ward puts the gun down & walks away to get Buddy. Garrett says he'll be at the truck, but I think he hung around to watch Buddy through the scope.

Also, Ward tells Garrett that putting down Buddy is not a weakness, but in reality he lets Buddy live. Flashforward, he says the same thing about Fitz/Simmons. That makes me believe he'd do the same thing in letting them go.

With Buddy, he felt like he fooled Garrett into thinking Ward was obedient. In this case, he'd be even more confident that Garrett wouldn't find out(being capacitated) . He also says he cares about them. The parallels are too clear to me.

p.s. just rewatched a scene where Ward says "I've done everything you asked" and Garrett says "Not everything". I think that confirms it was Garrett watching on the scope. (But not shooting, as that gun is loud)

p.p.s. very good pick to play Young Ward...looks like him, and played right.

They have just posted an announcement that Agents of Shield is renewed for a second season, and a spinoff featuring Agent Carter and set in the aftermath of Captain America's disappearance during WWII.

^I think Agent Carter constitutes a spinoff of Captain America: The First Avenger (and a sequel to the Agent Carter short) rather than a spinoff of AoS. It's more a companion show to AoS.

It's interesting how Marvel has used its DVD/Blu-Ray short films as pilots for TV series, after a fashion. One could see the two Coulson shorts and Item 47 as loose pilots for AoS, and Agent Carter was even more of a pilot for the series of the same name. (Which leaves All Hail the King as the only One-Shot that hasn't inspired a TV series. Mandarin Orange is the New Black, anyone?)

I would LOVE a short run series about Trevor Slattery and his efforts to impersonate powerful and unlikely people in his attempt to get a regular paycheck. I thought he was a kinda cool character.
of course, Sir Ben would need to play him and he'd never commit to a tv show.

^I think Agent Carter constitutes a spinoff of Captain America: The First Avenger (and a sequel to the Agent Carter short) rather than a spinoff of AoS. It's more a companion show to AoS.

It's interesting how Marvel has used its DVD/Blu-Ray short films as pilots for TV series, after a fashion. One could see the two Coulson shorts and Item 47 as loose pilots for AoS, and Agent Carter was even more of a pilot for the series of the same name. (Which leaves All Hail the King as the only One-Shot that hasn't inspired a TV series. Mandarin Orange is the New Black, anyone?)

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I still think the 10 Rings will finally be shown and dealt with in Iron Man 4, leaving the Hail to the King short as a set up for it. Technically it's still there to set up something else, just not TV.

Well unless, 10R's become another of Hydra's choas creating groups in AoS, revealing them to have behind most of the Middle Eastern problems in the recent decades.

And as for Triplett, Garrett still needed to maintain his guise of being a loyal & trusted SHIELD agent, one that Coulson still respected (and had no suspicion). So he trained Triplett as an unsuspecting SHIELD agent, and would have dumped him his first chance. Triplett seems to be a loyal agent who follows orders, so Garrett, pre-Hydra revelation, would just have Trip do his SHIELD thing.

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Keep in mind that Garrett lost a bunch of other people under him that were killed by the Clairvoyant.

Triplett was just one of many "good guys" that Garrett had working under him. Garrett played the role of a good Shield agent, generally working with all the people that he was assigned to work with. Didn't he even mention that he and Hand were part of the same team at one time?

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Did they ever say that Garrett trained Trip? In their first appearance, Garrett introduces Trip as the new guy on his team who replaced Ward.

Trip is a legacy, who had a wonderful family supporting him emotionally, who then went to university, probably did a tour as force recon, and then signed up with S.H.I.E.L.D.. The total package.

Ward almost killed his family, escaped jail, left in the woods for 2 years, and then was probably supplied with a false resume to be inserted in the middle of S.H.I.E.L.D. while being taught advanced combat and weapons skills... But really there's still a 50/50 that he's illiterate and an 80 percent chance that he did not finish High School.

If this is the model for Hydra Agents inside S.H.I.E.L.D. then it's pretty far out that S.H.I.E.L.D. never noticed that half their operatives are misspelling every third word of their field reports, in crayon.

Hydra doesn't look for rotten apples in the barrel, they bring their own rotten apples and top up the barrel.

Or, the Punisher. He'd be a good "guest star" especially since they can hire almost anybody to play him. They could have had Brett Dalton play Punisher, if he wasn't already Ward.

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If they're going to use Punisher, then there's only one actor I'd want to see in the role. Hell, I'd like to see him get his own cable series! Imagine a fugitive type format like the old Bill Bixby 'Hulk' series crossed with 'The Walking Dead' or 'Game of Thrones' level of graphic violence.

The worst thing they could do is rip off the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and have a framing sequence at the beginning of every episode where Old Peggy starts telling tedious stories to people who don't want to listen to her.

Trip is a legacy, who had a wonderful family supporting him emotionally, who then went to university, probably did a tour as force recon, and then signed up with S.H.I.E.L.D.. The total package.

Ward almost killed his family, escaped jail, left in the woods for 2 years, and then was probably supplied with a false resume to be inserted in the middle of S.H.I.E.L.D. while being taught advanced combat and weapons skills... But really there's still a 50/50 that he's illiterate and an 80 percent chance that he did not finish High School.

If this is the model for Hydra Agents inside S.H.I.E.L.D. then it's pretty far out that S.H.I.E.L.D. never noticed that half their operatives are misspelling every third word of their field reports, in crayon.

Hydra doesn't look for rotten apples in the barrel, they bring their own rotten apples and top up the barrel.

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Having to cover five years in a few minutes' worth of flashbacks, they skipped the detail that Garret was also giving Ward essay assignments. He wrote a sequel to Walden....

I'm intrigued by the Agent Carter series, because it's a period piece. I'm interested in good characters and good writing, not "huge" storylines. A "huge" storyline has cut the quality of SHIELD in half.

This is just silly. As long as a show has good writing and good characters that people care about, none of what you point out is at all relevant to the quality of the show. I guess shows like Man Men or Downton Abbey or the Americans can't be good because they can't drastically re-write history? Or no reason to watch Rome or Boardwalk Empire or any other period piece that uses historical figures because we already know how their stories end?